Britney Spears seems to generate attention (much of it negative) for virtually everything she does these days, be it a lawsuit that claims she has poor hygiene or claims that she lip-syncs and sleepwalks her way through her latest concerts.

But that’s part of the appeal: To see whether the “Oops …” girl will totally unravel or actually recovers her performance skills from the mid-2000s.

And darned if her latest album, “Femme Fatale,” released in March, has already gone gold and produced two Top 3 hits: “Hold It Against Me” and “Til the World Ends.” A third single, “I Wanna Go,” released in June, is rising.

If it was nearly unthinkable 25 years ago that a band playing heavy metal could be called Christian — as ground-breaking California band Stryper was — imagine what it would have been like to have a band play songs by Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest or (gulp!) Black Sabbath!

But that’s precisely what Stryper, the Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling band does on its new album, “The Covering,” saying they are bands that influenced their music. Luckily for those who are skittish, the disc also has a new Stryper song called “God.”

The disc also marked the return of original bassist Tim Gaines, making it the first disc since 1990’s “Against the Law” to feature the classic lineup.

In a season of more than 40 free concerts by a diverse field of quality performers at the new Levitt Pavilion at SteelStacks in south Bethlehem, the likely highlight comes with late 1970s soft rockers Ambrosia, who had five Top 40 singles from 1975 to 1980, and whose lineup briefly included a pre-solo Bruce Hornsby.

“How Much I Feel” from 1978, and “Biggest Part of Me” and “You're the Only Woman (You & I)” from 1980 all hit the Top 5. Those songs alone are worth the price of admission.

Jimmy Webb’s songwriting credits are astonishing: "Up, Up and Away" for the 5th Dimension, "Wichita Lineman" and "Galveston" for Glen Campbell, "MacArthur Park" and many more.

His songs also have been recorded or performed by The Supremes, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and even R.E.M., and Chet Atkins, among others.

His song "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," also made a hit by Campbell, was the third most performed song in the 50 years between 1940 to 1990, and combined with “Up, Up and Away,” won a total of eight Grammy Awards. In fact, he’s the only artist to have ever won Grammy Awards for music, lyrics and orchestration.

Webb has also recorded extensively and performs live – as he will at Mauch Chunk Opera House. But his performing career never approached his success as a composer.

The 29th annual Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning is the largest summertime hot air balloon and music festival in North America, with upwards of 150,000 people expected to attend.

Barenaked Ladies

The festival offers morning-through-night family entertainment, with mass ascensions of more than 100 hot air balloons, fireworks, a human cannonball, skydiving teams, interactive exhibits, children’s amusement rides and much more.

JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.